New Israel Fund Action Guide 2022
For over 40 years, the New Israel Fund has protected and strengthened democracy, equality, justice, pluralism, and human rights in Israel.
The films presented at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan’s Other Israel Film Festival, founded by visionary NIF International Board Member Carole Zabar, provide a window into the lives of Israelis and Palestinians from all walks of life and every corner of the land.
Every year, our NIF Action Guide connects the issues illuminated by the films of the Other Israel Film Festival with the work of movements, organizations, activists, and leaders on the ground that we support, and with tips on how to get involved.
To learn more about New Israel Fund and our work, please click here.
Click on the film titles below to learn more about how to take action beyond the film:
Tantura
Tantura, Sundance’s opening night film, documents the war that broke out when the State of Israel was established in 1948. To Israelis, this is known as the War of Independence; to Palestinians, it is “Al Nakba” (the Catastrophe). In the late 1990s, graduate student Teddy Katz conducted research into a large-scale massacre that had allegedly occurred in the village of Tantura in 1948. His work later came under attack and his reputation was ruined, but 140 hours of audio testimonies remain. Director Alon Schwarz revisits these records to re-examine what happened in Tantura and explore why discussion of the Nakba is taboo in Israeli society. Interviews with former Israeli soldiers as well as Palestinian residents expose how power, silencing, and protected narratives sculpt history.
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One of the founding myths of the State of Israel is that it was a “land with no people for a people with no land.” The reality is that Palestinian Arabs lived there, many of whom were forced from their homes, often violently, in 1948. Acknowledging this truth remains controversial in Israeli public discourse. Tantura examines one grisly event in 1948 and the outrage that ensued when an Israeli graduate student tried to uncover it. Now, civil society organizations are beginning to sift through the archives to examine the past.
The Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research is an NIF grantee that focuses on using the archives to deconstruct and shift dominant narratives. They also partner with human rights activists and other organizations to support their work through archival material.
1341 Frames of Love and War
For a year and a half, the acclaimed photojournalist Micha Bar-Am allowed director Ran Tal to enter his vast archive of negatives. 1341 Frames of Love and War provides an intimate portrait of the artist and a meditation on memory, violence, and identity. Composed entirely of images that Bar-Am took over more than 50 years, the film reveals an epic journey and the enormous price that comes along with documenting atrocities and wars. It is a complex love letter to the power, beauty, and horror of photographic imagery.
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Photographs shape how the public sees, perceives, and understands pivotal moments in history. That’s doubly true for times of war, when the worst may be obscured from public view. Opening a window into the violence, destruction, and love that happen during wartime can alter how a nation remembers what happened and can shine a light on the moments that governments might prefer we forget. NIF grantees and partners work to document these moments.
NIF partner Activestills is a collective established in 2005 by a group of documentary photographers, out of a strong conviction that photography is a vehicle for social change. It believes in the power of images to shape public attitudes and to raise awareness on issues that are generally absent from public discourse.
NIF grantee +972 Magazine is an independent, online, nonprofit magazine run by a group of Palestinian and Israeli journalists, committed to equity, justice, and freedom of information. It believes in accurate and fair journalism that spotlights the people and communities working to oppose occupation and apartheid, and that showcases perspectives often overlooked or marginalized in mainstream narratives.
NIF grantee B’Tselem – The Israeli Information for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories works to document the human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories, and end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank as well as the daily violence of the occupation. NIF has provided support for B’Tselem’s Camera Project, which provides cameras to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank so they can document the daily violence and obstacles they face.
Breaking the Silence is an NIF grantee made up of IDF veterans whose mission is to bring the daily reality of life under occupation to the Israeli public and to advocate for its end. The organization collects testimonies from soldiers that illuminate the violent and corrupting nature of the occupation.
A Reel War: Shalaal
History is archived by the victors. While searching in an Israeli archive, filmmaker Karnit Mandel stumbles across film reels from a long-lost Palestinian Liberation Organization record. This never-before-seen footage was seized by Israel during the 1982 Lebanon war, and Mandel begins to wonder what is so dangerous in it that requires hiding. As the truth of these historical records unravel, she comes into conflict with the bureaucracy of Israel’s defense apparatus, which denies the possession of additional footage. Will she be able to wrestle back any of this untold history, or will the reels forever remain buried?
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How do you form a national historical memory when all evidence of it is locked away by Israel? This is a dilemma Palestinians have faced for over 70 years. Researchers, storytellers, and activists have pushed back on the erasure of Palestinian narratives by digging deep into archives, continuing oral traditions, and disseminating stories.
The Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research is an NIF grantee that focuses on using the archives to deconstruct and shift dominant narratives. They also partner with human rights activists and other organizations to support their work through archival material.
Boycott
When a news publisher in Arkansas, an attorney in Arizona, and a speech therapist in Texas are told they must choose between their jobs and their political beliefs, they launch legal battles that expose an attack on freedom of speech across 33 states in America. Boycott traces the impact of state legislation designed to penalize individuals and companies that choose to boycott Israel due to its human rights record. A legal thriller with “accidental plaintiffs” at the center of the story, Boycott is a bracing look at the far-reaching implications of anti-boycott legislation and an inspiring tale of everyday Americans standing up to protect our rights in an age of shifting politics and threats to freedom of speech.
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At a time when democracy is facing new and changing threats from populism, a new restriction on freedom of expression has emerged: a rise in laws criminalizing boycotts of Israel. No matter what your position on the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) Movement is, one’s employment or access to government services should not be conditioned on it. NIF and its partners are proud to oppose laws at the federal and state level that criminalize BDS.
NIF and our Progressive Israel Network partners T’ruah, Americans for Peace Now (APN), J Street, and others have been at the forefront of advocating against such anti-BDS laws that would curtail freedom of expression. Some of these groups have also filed amicus briefs in cases against these state laws, many of which are being litigated by the ACLU, including the Arkansas law at the center of this film.
Cinema Sabaya
Actress Dana Ivgy leads a cast of non-actors in this dramatic narrative. Nine women, Arab and Jewish, take part in a video workshop to learn how to document their lives, hosted by a young film director named Rona. As the women begin to film their lives and share the raw, homemade footage with the rest of the group, the group dynamic shifts, forcing each of them to challenge their views and beliefs as they get to know one another and themselves better.
Action Guide:
Something special happened when a group of Arab and Jewish women came together for a workshop to document their lives through video. Such spaces so rarely exist in contemporary Israel and they can lead to new understandings of the “other”, unexpected connections, and visions of a better future. A number of organizations make space for these important workshops and connections.
NIF grantee Givat Haviva is a civil society organization for social change that strives to create a model society in Israel, emphasizing the importance of a Jewish-Arab shared society anchored in mutual respect, trust, pluralism, and intrinsic equality. Givat Haviva hosted one of the workshops that inspired Cinema Sabaya.
Itach Ma’aki – Women Lawyers for Social Justice, an NIF grantee, was established in 2001 to give voice to women subject to social, geographic, national, ethnic and economic discrimination in Israeli society. Itach Ma’aki promotes female leadership through the creation of innovative community models, which contribute to the development of unique and groundbreaking legal feminist projects.
Dead Sea Guardians
The Dead Sea—the lowest place on earth and one of the wonders of the world—is drying up at an alarming rate. Three men—a Jordanian, an Israeli, and a Palestinian—feel they cannot just stand by, so they put together a group of international swimmers to do something that has never been done: swim across the Dead Sea from Jordan to Israel. Amidst suffocating politics, the film follows this extraordinary and dangerous action, hoping to achieve media exposure that will drive the region’s countries to take action. One swim at a time.
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With “once-in-a-generation” droughts, storms, and floods increasingly happening every year, the need to take action to avert climate catastrophe becomes evermore pressing. Nowhere is that more true than in a region where control over dwindling natural resources takes on a political bent. There are a number of organizations working to combine the effort to fight climate change with the cause of building lasting peace in the region.
NIF grantee the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies is a leading environmental studies and research institute in the Middle East. It houses accredited academic programs, research centers, and international cooperation initiatives focusing on a range of environmental concerns and challenges. The Institute hosts Jordanian, Palestinian, and Israeli leaders and scientists committed to tackling environmental challenges while breaking down borders.
The Heschel Center for Environmental Sustainability is an NIF grantee that develops and implements a vision of sustainability that includes a just and cohesive society, a robust and democratic economy, and a healthy and productive environment for all residents. The center bridges theoretical knowledge and practical methods, and creatively spreads the message of sustainability, assisting leaders from every sector of society to promote significant change in Israel.
Aklim Echad (One Climate) is a movement that works to promote climate justice between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. It operates at the intersection of opposing Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and demanding immediate action on climate change, two issues that are inextricably linked.
The Devil’s Drivers
Drivers Hamouda and Ismail navigate the Israel-Palestine border and smuggle Palestinian workers from one world to the next so that they may simply provide for their families. Over the course of eight years, film cameras follow two men as they careen their cars through sandy dunes and across winding roads, evading Israeli soldiers who assume that any Palestinian heading for the border is a terrorist. An intimate yet harrowing portrait, The Devil’s Drivers is an immersion into life under occupation, documenting car chases and perilous trips in breathless suspense.
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Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, well into its sixth decade, has suffocated the Palestinian economy. Unable to find sufficient employment in the West Bank, and with legal permits harder and harder to come by, an increasing number of Palestinians are crossing into Israel with smugglers to find work. The labyrinthine permit system coupled with severe restrictions on movement and harsh consequences for those caught crossing illegally leave many Palestinian workers with no good options. A number of organizations are working to expose the bureaucratic violence of the occupation while supporting Palestinian migrant workers.
NIF grantee Machsom Watch (Checkpoint Watch) is a collective of Israeli women who observe and document activity at Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank. They not only hold soldiers at checkpoints accountable, but they also shine a light on the daily humiliation of occupation for Palestinians that many Israelis within the Green Line are able to ignore.
Kav LaOved – Worker’s Hotline is an NIF grantee which aims to protect the rights of the most disadvantaged workers — including undocumented Palestinian workers — in Israel, addressing violations through individual assistance, advocacy, outreach, and more.
The Forgotten Ones
In the 1950s, Mizrahi Jews coming from North Africa and the Middle East were denied their right to a better life in Israel. They were forced to move into development towns in the Negev Desert, and 70 years later, the new generations of Mizrahim still suffer from this policy. Michale Boganim follows the footsteps of her father, who came from Morocco and quickly became a leader of the local Israeli Black Panthers to stand against this discrimination. She embarks on a road trip through Israel’s history to meet with three generations of Mizrahim and share their story.
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Hundreds of thousands of people immigrated to Israel from North Africa and the Middle East expecting to have the opportunity to build better lives in their new homes. Instead, most were relegated to small towns on Israel’s “periphery” while their children were denied equitable educational opportunities. For as long as the state has marginalized them, Mizrahi activists have pushed back. NIF is proud to support Mizrahi-led organizations for justice over decades.
NIF grantee the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition is a nonpartisan, non-parliamentary social movement that works to affect the current public agenda in the aim of bringing change into the Israeli society as a whole and to its institutions. The organization is Mizrahi in its goals, universal in its beliefs, and open to all those who identify with its values. The movement strives to bring about a meaningful change among the Israeli society and implement values of democracy, human rights, social justice, equality and multiculturalism.
NIF grantee the Amram Association is an organization dedicated to uncovering the truth about and seeking justice for the disappearance of Yemenite, Mizrahi, and Balkan children in the 1950s.
Achoti – For Women in Israel is a Mizrahi feminist movement, established in 2000, which works to create a feminist multiethnic and multinational home for women, and to advance economic, social and cultural justice in Israel.
H2: The Occupation Lab
Segregated, highly surveilled, heavily filmed, and intensely guarded, H2 is the only Palestinian city with a Jewish settlement in it. Through rare archive footage and interviews with Hebron’s military commanders, H2: The Occupation Lab uncovers the ways in which a single neighborhood in Hebron fuels the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The film tells the story of 54 years of military occupation and the place that is both a microcosm of the entire conflict and a test site for the methods of control Israel is implementing throughout the West Bank.
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No city better encapsulates the occupation than Hebron, where settlers, Palestinians, and Israeli soldiers exist in close proximity to one another. For the hundreds of settlers who have taken over part of the Old City, the military has turned the area into a ghost town, making life virtually impossible for Palestinians there, resulting in a mass exodus. Because of its fraught nature, the army tests its creative and cruel new tactics for control on Hebron. NIF grantees and partners are working to shine a light on these injustices and work towards an end to the practices, and ultimately an end to the occupation as a whole.
Breaking the Silence is an NIF grantee made up of IDF veterans whose mission is to bring the daily reality of life under occupation to the Israeli public and to advocate for its end. The organization collects testimonies from soldiers — including in Hebron — that illuminate the violent and corrupting nature of the occupation. Breaking the Silence also leads tours for both Israelis and foreigners to see Hebron under occupation for themselves.
NIF’s flagship grantee, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) is the oldest and most influential civil and human rights organization in Israel. Founded in 1972 and modeled on the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACRI is the only NGO in Israel advocating across the broad spectrum of human rights and civil liberties for everyone living in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Its strategic focus areas include: the Arab minority, migrants and refugees, the occupied Palestinian territories, and social, economic rights, and political rights. ACRI has filed petitions that seek to loosen the restrictions on movement for Palestinians in Hebron.
NIF grantee B’Tselem – The Israeli Information for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories works to document the human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories, and end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank as well as the daily violence of the occupation.
The Soldier’s Opinion
From 1948 onward, the Israeli military censorship examined soldiers’ letters under the guise of preventing the disclosure of military secrets. But unknown to soldiers was a secret apparatus which copied their letters and stored them. The purpose was to analyze the views of ordinary soldiers, and the findings were presented to high-ranking officials in a top secret report titled “The Soldier’s Opinion.”
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Action Guide: Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the government and the upper echelons of the military have understood the power of what its soldiers witnessed in the course of their service. Today, efforts to bring soldiers’ testimony from the occupied territories to the public are slammed by the right-wing as “anti-Israel”.
Breaking the Silence is an NIF grantee made up of IDF veterans whose mission is to bring the daily reality of life under occupation to the Israeli public and to advocate for its end. The organization collects testimonies from soldiers that illuminate the violent and corrupting nature of the occupation.
